yesterdays paper

Carbon trading scandal linked to GovernmentBEN CUBBY AND MARIAN WILKINSON

September 9, 2009

THE Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade assisted an Australian company caught up in Papua New Guinea's carbon trading scandal as it closed deals in Bangladesh and Jordan this year, even giving it funding.

Carbon Planet and its PNG partner, Kirk Roberts, have been embroiled in a widening controversy over mocked-up carbon credit certificates, some of which were used in negotiations with PNG landowners.

Last week the PNG Government warned landowners against selling voluntary carbon rights over their forests to foreign companies, including Mr Roberts's business, Nupan, following the removal of the head of the PNG Office of Climate Change.

As the scandal erupted in PNG in May, Australia's Ambassador to Jordan, Glenn White, joined a director of Carbon Planet, Haris Chaudhry, at a signing ceremony for a carbon trading deal with a local energy company at the Australian embassy in Amman.

That week the High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Justin Lee, joined Mr Chaudhry at a ceremony for a deal in Bangladesh, where Carbon Planet is partnering a company to work on voluntary carbon credit schemes.

Last night a spokesman for the department confirmed that Carbon Planet had received Federal Government support but details were commercial-in-confidence.

''Our officials welcomed the co-operation between the Australian and local companies in the energy sector but did not endorse or promote the company,'' the spokesman said. Austrade also provided ''a range of services'' to Carbon Planet, but did not specify what they were.

The spokesman said Carbon Planet received a grant of $53,063 last financial year through the export market development grants scheme for developing exports to the United States and Britain.

A founder of Carbon Planet, David Sag, last week defended its role in PNG and its partner there, Mr Roberts.

A dispute has broken out among PNG landowners who Mr Roberts claims to represent in a deal signed last year. In June, a PNG court restrained the Office of Climate Change from dealing in any carbon credits over the forest controlled by the landowners until the dispute is resolved.